FiberMax Promotes Certified Fiber Quality
March 9, 2009 Fiber quality has never been as important as it is today throughout the cotton industry.
Gins desire clean, contamination-free cotton from producers. Mills demand high-quality, longer staple fiber from gins. Garment and textile manufactures, along with retailers, continue to offer better finished goods to their consumers, whose standards and preferences continue to rise with their economic prosperity.
While each link along the supply chain works to ensure fiber quality more than ever before, quality begins with seed, and that seed begins with seed companies. Yield has always been the clarion call for seed companies. After all, producers are paid according to their crop production. But with global competition increasing on all levels of the cotton industry, seed companies continue to realize the importance of fiber quality in their varieties.
Focusing on Fiber Quality
Perhaps leading the seed companies’ charge for better fiber quality, Bayer CropScience’s FiberMax cotton seed and its accompanying Certified FiberMax Program are on the frontier of ensuring quality fiber through the chain. FiberMax varieties are quickly becoming known for their quality, and some have graded as high as premium Acala cotton grown in the western U.S. That quality, combined with the Certified FiberMax program which ensures mills that the cotton they receive is indeed FiberMax, is creating a demand for Certified FiberMax cotton around the world.
“Mills like high-quality cotton,” said Monty Christian, directing of marketing for Certified FiberMax. “It increases spinning efficiency, especially on ring spun. When you look at the most of the global spinning capacity, more of it is spun on ring spun than any other method. So with that, when you have a better quality fiber, you just have less down time. Generally you have less neps and short-end fiber content.”
Fewer problems in the mill process mean more productivity and better efficiency. As the growing number of mills increases global competition, spinning efficiency demands that merchants supply their customers with high quality cotton.
“I have met owners from several of the large mills throughout the world, and they are extremely sharp people. As they look to become more competitive in this market place, they will get more and more efficient. And they are all looking for ways to get to the top of their game,” Christian said. “The ones I see that are going to be there for the long-term are the ones that are going to be very efficient. They are going to have a supply chain that is very stable, and they need quality cotton to backfill that.”
Driving the Demand
Increased demand for high quality cotton fibers correlates to the demand for cotton products worldwide. Economic growth, especially of middle class segments in Asia and the Indian subcontinent, is giving consumers more disposable income to spend on garments and textiles. The trend is not only increasing total mill output, but also the demand for higher quality, luxury items.
“Last summer, I was visiting with the owner of a mill in Thailand, and he was a second generation owner, and he gave me what I thought was a good illustration of how people increase their wardrobe as their economic lifestyle increases or improves,” Christian said. “He said he could remember vividly, when he was growing up, his father had 8 shirts and 2 pairs of pants in his closet. But today, that mill owner said he had at least 50 shirts and a dozen pairs of pants. As his affluence increased, he just had more and more in his wardrobe. And if it is filled with cotton, we would like it to be high end cotton.”
Christian believes the trend will continue. With explosive growth in Asia, he believes the demand for cotton, especially high quality cotton, will be fueled by emerging economies and populations.
“I think there will continue to be a strong global demand for cotton. I know the price right now is not where everyone would like it to be, but it is just hard for me to imagine in the future that there will not be strong demand for cotton, and I hope that demand grows out of Asia.”
Answering the Call
Since its inception in 1998, FiberMax has answered the call for higher quality cotton. In eight years, it has become the second most planted cotton seed in the U.S., accounting for about 25% market share. Large production areas also include Brazil and Mediterranean areas such as Greece, Spain and Turkey.
As far consumption and demand, Christian said FiberMax is sought by mills worldwide.
“FiberMax is the only cotton brand that is asked for and known worldwide. And by that I mean that it is trademarked,” Christian said. “Generally, you have cottons that are traded on a regional descriptor, such as East African or Uzbekistan, Australia or SJV. But FiberMax is asked for by brand name, and that is why we have launched the Certified FiberMax program.”
The Certified FiberMax Program is a free, value-added program that benefits everyone along the cotton supply chain. The program certifies each bale in the program as a FiberMax variety, giving merchants and mills the confidence in the cotton’s quality. Each bale can be tracked to the country, state, county and farm where it was grown on. With that dependability, mill owners can confidently purchase Certified FiberMax cotton and expect a certain level of quality.
“As I travel around the world, what mills want is dependability. Mills fight issues like contamination, they fight issues like a timely supply, and they fight issues such as receiving what they ordered. That is why we started our Certified FiberMax program,” Christian said, adding that mill owners are like winemakers – they want to know specifics about their ingredients.
“The comments I got were very interesting. Spinners want real specifics – they want to know how it spins. I look at spinners kind of like winemakers. If you go to France, you have all of these little winemakers, and they are all masters. And that’s what these spinners are. They can feel thread, they can feel fabric, and they always ask questions about how it spins. They want to know if you can mix blend, how it dyes, and they really don’t want contamination. When they are spinning their yarns, they want that machinery to keep on operating.”
Christian believes Certified FiberMax cotton can alleviate many of those concerns. Spreading that message from retailers and mill owners to merchants and growers, he emphasizes the reliable quality and assurance delivered with each bale of FiberMax cotton. As mills see the benefits of the program, the message of success should travel throughout the chain.
“I think we have done a really good job with mills. We have hit some of the largest mills in the world over the last three years,” Christian said. “So I think the awareness is there, and they are waiting to see where the demand is going to be downstream. The cotton merchants, once they see there is revenue being paid for the quality, then I would hope they would continue to promote this as high quality cotton and look for opportunities to keep the value there.
“There is a lot of awareness that we have to increased standards. When you are playing in a global market, the bar is raised. Now that we are supplying more cotton globally, you just have to supply what the customer wants. And certainly Certified FiberMax is capable of doing that.”
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